Two boys with issues
by AJiyongzz
Summary: Dipper has barely recovered from a close call encounter with an unknown creature in the forest of Gravity falls. Broken and worn out, he is informed of the news that he is getting new neighbors. When the family has a boy named Norman that is around Dipper's age, what happens to the both of them? And does this new friend have anything to do with the families Tragedy? *AU*
1. Chapter 1

Dipper slowly began to twist the screw with his fingers to find it wasn't going to move, he needed a screwdriver. He glanced back up over the mound of destroyed boxes and broken furniture and after seeing the huge, mangled silhouette he ducked down as fast as he could. A dark, sinister grumble followed by the scraping sound of metal hit Dipper's ears causing him to hold his breath and clenched his eyes shut in attempt to stay quiet. He felt his blood turning cold in his veins and his skin crawled on the back of his neck and shoulders. He was just about ready to cry, where on Earth was he going to find a screwdriver to open the trapdoor and escape this horrid situation? He couldn't stay up in the attic much longer without the thing noticing him and surely killing him instantly.

~Prior~

Earlier in the morning, Dipper had been trudging endlessly through the dense forest outside his residence of Gravity Falls in search of yet another anomaly, another Cryptid if you will. He and Mabel had been online again and in their excitement of discovering a new undiscovered creature supposedly living in the forests close to town, Dipper couldn't wait to go and see if the rumors were true. But despite his past experience and knowledge on such things, he decided he would go empty handed and just catch a glimpse of the creature to firstly convince himself of it's existence, so he could continue further searches for it after collecting more information. This was a careless mistake he would regret for a long time.

Dipper came across an old, torn down building some three hundred meters away that he did not recognize. He was almost sure that he had the entire forest, or most of it, mapped out and memorized. He hadn't gone that far away, it was relatively close to home. Dipper frowned in confusion and was puzzled that he hadn't noticed it before. His natural instinct was to take a look and upon closer inspection the building was a lot older than he first thought. There was a gaping big hole in the roof and all the paint had almost completely peeled off the wood. The house was built on a 40 degree incline at the base of a tree covered hill in one of the densest parts of the forest and the house was held level with a brick wall; holding the floor perfectly horizontal. The front, side and back door had been nailed shut and Dipper didn't have time to try and break them down, especially when there was a perfectly useful hole in the roof.

He pulled up his shorts a little, rubbed his hands together before climbing up the side of the building, clinging to the gutter and rolling up onto the tiled portion of the semi-intact roof. He cautiously stepped over to the edge of the hole and peered inside. Cloudy dust was drifting through the air and settling on the floor, giving Dipper the idea that the roof must have collapsed within minutes of him seeing the building and he thought it was safer to get down in there than risk his body weight collapsing the rest of the roof and injuring himself. He sat with his feet dangling down, slid his butt off the edge and landed with a soft pat on the floor, his knees bent down to cushion the fall. He stood up and dusted himself off and looked at his surroundings. broken roof tiles scattered across the floor, broken pieces of wood and furniture all over the place.

He walked over to one side where there was less rubble and opened a few drawers of an old Duchess finding only a paper weight and a few old pencils. The Duchess had a broken mirror above it, small shards of glass lay on the top of the drawers. Dipper was about to turn around when a quick look at the ground had him fixated and hunched over. Smeared across the wooden floor was a dark red/brown liquid. Dipper frowned.

Blood?

He slowly stood straight again and caught a glimpse of something horrific in the distorted reflection of the shattered mirror in front of him. A Bipedal creature nearly twice Dipper's height and width hunching over, cowered in the far corner of the room with it's back to Dipper. It was breathing heavily and it fidgeted around making harsh sounding spits and grunts. Dipper took no time to duck behind the nearest thing he could fine beside him, a pile of broken furniture and wooden crates and he sat still as a statue, absolutely petrified. He heard the creature move along the floor before standing up and bashing it's limbs against the walls in a fit of rage. It let out a scream so terrifying, so obscene that Dipper might have dropped dead that very moment.

Not that Dipper paid too much close attention, but he noticed that the way the creature walked from what he could here, it was injured. Then it clicked. The creature must have fallen through the roof somehow and that's why the whole room was in this state. Dipper tried his best to clear his thoughts, but he was so unprepared that e couldn't think of a way to get out. And he desperately needed to. He slowly moved his leg across the floor when he felt a screw sticking out of the floor scrape painfully up his calf muscle. Grabbing his leg and cringing at the pain he looked down at the screw and realized it was holding down a trap door conveniently place beneath him! This was his only way out. Apart from the roof of course but that was out of the question. The creature still moving about and seemingly getting angrier, Dipper reluctantly slid himself off the trapdoor and began to try to twist off the screw.

~Current~

Dipper suddenly remembered the paper weight sitting in the Duchess drawer to the left of him, and he slowly and quietly reached for the cupboard. A gruff sound made him pull back, but he nervously attempted again and slowly pulled open the drawer and pulled out the paper weight. It was quite a heavy one, and he took another quick glance over his barrier before getting to his knees and pegging the paper weight straight at the creatures head with as much strength as he could produce. The thing raucously collapsed to the ground and Dipper went straight to survival mode. He picked up a small metal piece of furniture lying among the rubble and forcefully pried off the screw and pulled the trapdoor open. The creature roared, rattling the building and Dipper leaped out of the attic and crashed onto the floor of a dark house. Dipper picked himself up and raced to one of the windows. Wooden squares nailed over the frames blocking out any light didn't matter, Dipper grabbed the nearest thing and bashed through the wood with it, piercing light shone at his eyes as he saw the setting sun dragging itself towards the horizon.

He climbed out and made for a sprint when another roar made him turn his back. The creature was standing straight up in the attic still and it was tall enough for it's head and shoulders to be visible out the hole from the ground. It pulled itself out of the hole and jumped off the roof in pursuit of Dipper. And this thing was fast despite it's injury.

Dipper ran as hard and fast as he could, as well as dodging trees, rocks and roots so he wouldn't trip up. He was quite agile so staying up wasn't a problem for him, but losing this beast was. After about fifteen minutes of straight running, the creature seemed to give up and it jogged away from the building and into the trees. Dipper however didn't stop running until he was back home behind a closed front door.

"But mom you should have seen the fucking size of it!" Dipper gasped with exhaustion. "It could easily be twice my height and it was so fast holy shit"

"I don't care how much you want to 'document' this new creature, you're going to kill yourself out their. You're forbidden to go back out there." Mrs. Pines said, putting her foot down.

She was used to Dipper exploring the forest and claiming to find things, but she could clearly see the danger this boy had gotten himself into. She stood over the kitchen sink washing plates while Mr. Pines put down his newspaper as he sat at the table, ready to contribute to the conversation if necessary.

Dipper was going to argue his mothers decisions, but seeing his father watching him he went against it and sat down instead, puffing loudly.

"Must have been a good workout though, Eh?" Mr. Pines said, chuckling to himself.

"My whole body hurts from running, I didn't stop for a solid twenty minutes." Dipper said. He got up and washed his face under the bathroom sink before returning to the kitchen.

"It'll feel worse tomorrow, it's always worse the second day." Mrs. Pines said as she put the last knife into the dishwasher.

"And you've got work to do tomorrow, too." Mr. Pines added.

"What?! What work?" Dipper raised his voice.

"We've got new neighbors coming tomorrow, you and I are helping them move in and get their stuff into their house so the delivery van can leave before 5 in the afternoon." Mr. Pines said, knowing Dipper would complain but would obey because of past events.

Dipper huffed loudly, before getting up to take a shower.

"Who are they?" Dipper asked.

"I believe the Babcock's. Two kids, One guy around your age and a girl a little older. You should have enough time to make friend with them tomorrow."

"Oh, I guess I don't have a choice about being friends with them as well then?" Dipper said, annoyed.

"Nope."

Dipper huffed again, before storming upstairs to take a thirty minute hot shower to soothe his sore muscles.

Dipper shut and locked the bathroom door before stripping down his clothes and turning on the hot water, steaming up the bathroom. He didn't hop into the shower straight away, he liked to let the mirror fog up before getting in so he knew the conditions were just right. He climbed into the shower hissed at the sharp sting coming from the back of his calf, and he looked to see the scratch the screw had left back in the attic of the building in the forest.

He began to recall the look that monster gave him and it sent chills down his spine even though he was under hot water. He pushed it from his mind and instead he wondered what type of neighbors he would have. What would the boy be interested in? Would the girl be too old to date? Who knows?

Dipper dragged himself out of the shower and wrapped himself up in his blanket and fell into a deep sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper felt an awfully sinister feeling that racked his whole body. It started from a slight discomfort, but it grew until it woke him from his sleep. He sat up straight, his body hot yet his skin in a cold sweat. He was shaking and his breathing was unnecessarily fast. He removed his shirt and turned on his ceiling fan to try and cool himself down, but the off feeling wouldn't leave. A sudden urge to look out his window came over him and as he did, a dark shadow quickly past by his open window and he knew exactly what it was. Dipper turned on his lamp to dim and he got up and shut the window before closing the curtains. He knew that monster had been watching his bedroom, he knew it must have followed him or watched from a distance to his house. Dipper looked at his clock and notice it was nearly three in the morning, but he was in no way ready to fall back asleep, so he pulled his laptop up onto the bed and comforted himself with good music and movies.

The sound of birds told him that it was close to sunrise and he parted his curtains slightly to see the yellow beginning of the morning sky painted delicately above the distant hills. He knew what morning awaited him and his bruised body throbbed, reminding him that he was going to have a difficult time. The time was nearly five thirty so he got up and clumsily pulled his socks and shorts off, grabbing his towel off the door to have an early morning shower. Once he was refreshed and fully awake, he came downstairs quietly to get some food. The only real light in the house being the fridge light. He was just about to take his sandwich back upstairs when a sound at the door made him freeze. He glanced over to see a familiar silhouette turning the door handle and slipping into the house. Immediately Dipper relaxed and walked over to Mabel.

"Dad's going to throw a fit! Where the fuck were you?" Dipper said in amusement.

"I was with Oscar, but to dad I was always in bed. Got it?" She threatened.

"Yeah yeah yeah I got it, I'm not going to pull you out sis." he chuckled.

"Why are you up so early anyway?"

"Oh, I have to help dad help the new neighbours move."

"We have new neighbours?" Mabel said in surprise. She was speaking in the loudest whisper he had ever heard.

"Yeah, the Babcocks or something… Apparently there is a brother and a sister and their mom."he said.

"Oh okay," Mabel said before walking towards the stairs. "Well I'm going to bed, and if Dad asks you if you knew where I was, say no."

"Right."

Mabel had met this guys named Oscar, she had been sneaking out to see him a couple of nights already, and like always Dipper had to cover for her. Dipper shook his head and walked back up to his bedroom. He pulled on a T-shirt and opened his curtains again, quickly checking the view outside for any lingering creature that was watching the house. About an hour later he heard the shower going and he knew his dad was up and not far after him would be mom so he came downstairs to have breakfast with her before being forced to suffer physical labor. She had already started the bacon and eggs and as he said good morning and poured himself a glass of orange juice he began to butter the toast and bring the plates to the table.

It was nearly Eighty thirty and Mabel and finally come back out of her room. She had done an excellent job at making her pajamas and hair resemble a homeless girl who had just sat in the middle of a tornado to convince everyone she had been sleeping all night. She yawned good morning before pulling out a chair at the table and 'struggled' to keep her eyes open. Mr. Piness began to clear his throat and Dipper knew the exact words he was about to say. Word for word.

"So, Where were you last night Mabel?" He said, looking up to Mabel.

"I didn't feel well yesterday, so I went up to my room and I fell asleep." She said, pouring herself a glass of juice and sipping from the glass.

"So is that why your car was gone until I came out this morning?" He questioned.

"Oh, no I let Oscar borrow it yesterday. He must have come back this morning to return it." She lied once more.

Mr. Piness looked at her a little before nodding and finishing his breakfast. Dipper groaned at the pain his muscles felt, but Mr. Pines insisted he come and help. He put his plate at the sink, kissed his mother's cheek before dragging his feet out of the house for a day of torturous work.

Dipper stood behind his father as he was speaking with Mr. Babcock offering our help which was, unfortunately for Dipper, happily accepted. The family had moved in last night, but the moving truck wouldn't arrive until Ten so Dipper and his father were invited into the house to meet the family. The house was fairly empty, the only things they brought were mattresses and boxes that didn't fit in the moving truck.

"Hey, I'm Sandra. You're our neighbors?" A blonde woman with a subtle smell of perfume greeted us in the kitchen.

"Yes, I'm Mr. Piness and this is my son Dipper. We've offered to help unload your moving truck for you." Mr. Piness said.

"Oh you didn't have to! But thankyou, I'm sure we'll get it done a lot faster with extra hands." She said. So, how old are you Dipper?" She said looking at Dipper.

"I just turned 16 about a week ago." Dipper said shuffling his feet uncomfortably on the hardwood floor.

"Oh okay, my son Norman's turning 16 this month. He's upstairs if you want to introduce yourself?" She said.

Dipper felt his fathers hand push him forward almost as an answer to Dipper's 'Do I have to?' look he gave him. He reluctantly walked up the stairs to find a bedroom on his right, and to his left another bedroom with a closed door. He peered inside the open door to see a girl sitting on her mattress typing quickly away on her laptop, not noticing Dipper awkwardly pulling himself away. He slowly walked up to the closed door and knock three times and pulled back, looking to his side biting his lip. He heard some movement before the wooden door opened revealing a boy of his age and height sticking his head out. Once the boy realised it was a guess he opened the door fully. The boy was wearing a red hoodie and black jeans with white socks, but the most intriguing feature was his jet black hair that stood in an updo seemingly on it's own.

"Oh, hi." The boy said, smiling slightly.

"Hey," Dipper replied. "My dad and I offered to help you guys with the moving truck?"

"Oh yeah, you're our neighbors?" He said. "Come in, I'm Norman by the way."

"Dipper." He said while stepping into a room with white walls and black carpet.

Norman sat down on his mattress and Dipper sat next to it on the carpet hugging his knees. Norman pulled a box that was sitting near by up onto the mattress and he tore the packing tape with a razor blade.

"So, why Gravity Falls?" Dipper asked. He knew that this town was hardly known for it's tourist attraction and climbing population.

"Oh, I guess we just had to get away from the old city, start fresh somewhere else." Norman said as he pulled out some of his belongings from the box. He stood up and went over to a desk already in the room.

"Are you thirsty?" Norman said pouring water from a glass jug into a cup placed on the desk.

"I'm fine thankyou." Dipper replied. This boy was a lot different to what he expected.

Dipper relaxed a little, relieved that he didn't feel a manliness contest vibe from the boy and he almost felt they could get along too which helped his nerves. He was curious to know what Norman was into, what his interests were as he seemed to be one to dislike sports like he did.

"So, Norman. What are you into?" Dipper asked after clearing his throat. The boy shrugged looking at the floor.

"I don't know, I know what don't like though. Sports and early mornings. Well mornings in general."

"I know, wouldn't it be great if it was just always night?" Dipper said earning a laugh from Norman.

"Yeah, I hate sunlight. As you can probably tell, I'm probably the most tan person you'll ever meet." Norman joked about his pale skin.

"Yeah." Dipper laughed. There was a silence before Norman shifted from his standing position leaning against his desk to the floor in front of Dipper.

"So, what are you interested in?" Norman asked. Dipper being not one to hide his passions, told the whole truth.

"Well actually, I want to become a paranormal investigator or more likely a Cryptozoologist when I'm older so I spend most of my time studying mythical creatures. Nothing childish, more like Loch ness Monster and stuff like that," Dipper said. "My sister, Mabel, sometimes helps me and I go out looking through the forests around here. I've found some pretty unbelievable things!"

Norman's eyes widened.

"Really? That's cool. I've actually got a bit of a… Paranormal secret for lack of a better word." Norman said.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Dipper said, his full attention payed on the boy.

"Okay, do you believe in ghosts?" Norman said.

"Yeah, of course. Have you got one?"

"Well," Norman shifted uncomfortably on the carpet, his legs crossed as he hugged his knees. "Ever since I was little, I've been able to see and communicate with the spirit world. I constantly can see spirits and entities without having to 'Call upon' them or anything. I was just born with it."

"Oh my god! That's awesome!" Dipper said excitedly.

"Well yeah, it has it's good parts. But sometimes I wish I didn't have it. It can get hard to sleep at night sometimes!" Norman laughed a little.

The two talked and laughed together for about half an hour before Normans dad entered the room.

"Boys, the moving truck has arrived. Mr. Piness and I will bring furniture and boxes inside and you'll take your stuff in here and set your own rooms up. We'll take care of everything else."

Dipper nodded and Norman stood up and began pulling blankets off of his mattress and throwing them in the corner before standing the mattress up on it's end against the wall.

"I'll just make a bit more room to have stuff in here." Norman said as he pushed his desk back against the wall.

Norman and Dipper walked out into the kitchen and both picked up relatively large boxes with the word 'NORMAN' written in thick black sharpie across the top and took it back up the stairs into his room. The boys took about ten boxes in before deciding to bring in his furniture.

It took some time, but both the boys managed to pull up the parts for Normans bed frame and put it together. They had his cupboards and drawers up and the last boxes stacked in the middle of Normans room just in time for a lunch break. Sandra had brought a plate of pizza and two glasses of fizzing soda and the two boys sat leaning against the wall, talking and eating their food. For reasons Dipper didn't understand, he felt very comfortable around Norman, almost enough that he could come into his room only wrapped in a towel looking for clothes and he wouldn't feel the slightest bit awkward. Whether that was the same for Norman wasn't evident, but Dipper could tell just by body language and the way they talked that Norman liked him and that they had just become friends.

Hours passed and the house had been completely, or almost completely, furnished and all boxes were unpacked. Norman, Sandra and Norman's father began talking about dinner when Mr. Pines offered again for them to stay for dinner at their house as a sort of welcome.

"You guys have already done so much! You're very kind, thank you." Sandra said. And with that, Norman, Dipper and Mr. Pines walked back to their house to bring news of the guests that would be staying for dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, this is my room." Dipper said leading Norman to a dark brown door with a intricate brass handle.

Norman stepped into the room and Dipper sat down on his bed, leaving room for Norman to sit beside him. Norman pulled his knees up closer to his chest and rocked back and forth slightly as he looked around the poster covered room.

"You know, most people would have posters of bands or naked girls in their room. You're the first person I've seen to have neither. And it's especially weird since they aren't sports or cars, your posters are of ugly creatures people don't believe exist." Norman said, chuckling to himself.

"Well of course, I don't like any of those things so I don't see the point of putting them up on the walls," Dipper replied, "I've been meaning to take a few down, they tend to make my room look a bit smaller."

"Yeah. I like the color of your walls, that sort of deep blue green like the sea is really cool!" Norman said, smiling.

"Yeah I painted them last winter, your walls are just white. You gonna paint them?" Dipper said rubbing one of his eyes.

"Probably just a light grey color."

"Yeah, that'd work."

There was a silence. Only lasted about a minute or so, but it wasn't too uncomfortable. The soft hum of Dippers parents talking and cooking reaching the bedroom. Dipper sighed audibly and Norman straightened up on the bed.

"So, since you're so into, all of this," Norman said gesturing to all the posters in the room, "Have you actually, you know, found anything?"

"Yeah, quite a bit actually. I've been interested in it for like five years and have actually been exploring since I was fourteen. Wanna see some stuff?" Dipper said.

"Yeah sure!" Norman said excitedly.

Dipper leaned over his bed and pulled up his laptop. He sat on his bed with his legs hanging over the edge, beckoning for Norman to take a look. The nature of showing someone things on a laptop screen inevitably makes the two sit very close to each other and even though Dipper takes note of this, he doesn't think too much of it. Dipper opens up a bunch of files before finding the file of photo's he's captured over the years.

"Okay so I've got about 25 photos here," Dipper said as he opened one. "This one the first photo I ever caught, I went to Canada for a holiday with some family and we went to Okanagan lake in British Columbia. The Ogopogo, the thing in the photo, is a 40 - 50 foot serpent like animal that has been sighted in that lake since the 19th century." Dipper said.

"Oh wow, that's an impressive photo! Have you reported any of these?" Norman asked, genuinely intrigued.

"I've thought about it, but because these creatures are constantly being photographed and most of them called as fakes, I feel that since I'm only 16 they would be shrugged off."

"That's true," Norman said," Do you have anything from here? Like in Gravity Falls?"

"Um, yeah I've caught a few on camera." Dipper said, pulling out a photo.

"There's actually a giant crab here, around 90 feet wide."

The boys sat and talked about these photos for what seemed like hours and Dipper had shown almost any convincing photo he had in his files. He then began scrolling quickly through some old deer cam photos that contained either nocturnal animals or bugs that triggered the camera. Norman stopped him on two photos.

"Look up in the left hand corner, see that?" Norman said pointing his finger at a pale figured seemingly hunched over being a bush.

"I hadn't noticed that before! What is that?"

"It's definitely an entity of some kind, I've seen enough to know that," Norman said. "But I can't understand why your deer cam would have caught it. Most spiritual entities don't possess enough energy for the human eye to see them, let alone a camera. It might have been a Demon."

"That's really… Scary, because I set that deer cam up near the house." Dipper said.

Norman was about to reply when the bedroom door opened and Mr. Pines peeped his head in.

"Dinner's just about ready, Norman did you want to go tell your parents?" Mr. Pines said.

"Yep." Norman said sitting up from the bed as Dipper followed close behind out the door.

"Dipper can you tell Mabel to get out here and tell her we have guests."

"Okay." Dipper said see ya to Norman and walked across the hallway to his sisters room and knocked.

There was no response and Dipper was almost expecting Mabel to have snuck off again and he began think of an excuse to save her ass again, when the door finally opened.

"Yeah?" Mabel said.

"Are you staying for dinner tonight?" Dipper replied, looking past Mabel into a bright room with fairy lights and music playing from two pink bubble speakers.

"Yeah, Oscar and his family went out tonight so I couldn't see him." She said.

"Okay, well Dad wants you down here. We're having our neighbors as guest for dinner."

"Are you fucking serious? We're probably creeping the fuck out of them!" Mabel said frustrated.

"The boys nice, I haven't met the girl yet." Dipper said walking down the stairs followed by his sister.

The two of them help prepare the rest of the food and they had just started putting everything on their dining table in the dining room when there was a knock at the door.

"I've got it." Mrs. Pines said taking off her oven mitts and she waddled over to the door.

Dipper heard the sounds of his mothers 'Come in, welcome' and he cringed. Sometimes he thought that his parents knew what made him uncomfortable and tried their hardest to do those things. The two families were sitting at the dinner table and they were getting along fine. The parents were talking parent-talk, Mabel and Normans sister Courtney had already reached best friends status despite their four year age gap. Dipper and Norman sat at the far end of the table and after watching their families converse, began their own conversation.

"So, does your family know that you can see ghosts?" Dipper said chewing on a delicious piece of chicken. Norman shook his head.

"My mum does, she's a sort of New Age-y meditation kind of person so when I told her she totally believed me and accepted it. My Dad knows about it, refuses to believe it and tells me I'm lying or imagining things."

"That sucks." Dipper said.

"Yeah. He's obsessed with trying to get me into 's signed me up for soccer, Gym, even tried to get me into cross country." Norman said.

Just as Norman said this, they boys over heard Normans Dad, Perry, mention his son.

"Yeah. Normans going to NFL college! He's not very interested right now, but he'll love it."

Both the boys shook their heads, and finished their meals.

"You boys can go back up to your room if you're done." Mrs. Pines said and Dipper and Norman packed their plates into the dishwasher before heading back upstairs.

The two boys sat back on the bed and Dipper closed his laptop and put it back on it's charger on the floor. The light had been turned off and only Dippers lamp illuminated the room.

"So, I've been meaning to ask you." Dipper began to say, "Have you seen any spirits since you've been here in Gravity falls?"

"Yeah, there's a lot more than there was back where I came from. Not to scare you or anything but there are two spirits in your house." Norman said quietly.

"Oh… I regret asking." Dipper said. He laughed nervously as he hugged himself on the bed.

"Oh don't worry, they're fine. They are just happy being where they are. I don't think they want to pass on, and they won't bother you guys."

Dipper nodded and Norman scratched the back of his head. They briefly made eye contact but looked away when their eyes connected. Dipper felt really different around Norman, he couldn't explain it. To break the silence Norman asked if Dipper would be okay with him talking to the spirits and getting some communication going.

"Ah… Um, yeah okay. Are you sure it's safe?" Dipper said, unsure about the situation.

"One hundred percent, so long as you stay quiet until I say you can talk." Norman said, quite seriously.

There was a silence, Norman crossed his legs and began to speak.

"Hello, um. I'm Norman." He said to the air, "I can see you and I'd like for us to communicate."

Norman waited a minute, before turning to Dipper.

"Okay so it's two old ladies, they used to own this house a long time before you moved in."

Dipper nodded, his gaze never leaving the spot in the air Norman had just been looking at. He thought he saw a faint movement, but he knew it was probably just his imagination.

"Okay well, are you two happy to share this house with Dipper and his family?" Norman said, "Okay, would it be alright if you communicate with Dipper?"

Before Norman got an answer, he and Dipper both heard a buzzing sound from Dipper's desk. Dipper grabbed his phone and say a text message, but there was no number.

"Read it," Norman reassured.

Dipper carefully opened the text that read,

From:

Hello Norman. You do not need to be frightened of us, Maggie and I (Josephine) have an attachment to this house and we couldn't pass over to the afterlife, we'd much rather live in peace here.

We've seen you grow up here and I'm almost proud of who you're becoming. Feel free to talk to us, we usually stay up on the balcony as it's the least disturbed part of your noisy house.

Dipper blinked and looked back up to Norman who was giving him a confirming smile.

"You can talk now."

"Wait, if they're ghosts. How can they send a text?" Dipper asked.

"They don't. Because they are on a different wave length, in a different dimension to us humans they can connect to us using things like technology and sometimes pen and paper. Josephine was speaking to you, but because you cannot audibly hear her it was transferred to your phone." Norman replied simply.

"That makes sense I guess. So, depending on the amount of energy an entity or a spirit has, the more or less they can reveal themselves and interact with our world?" Dipper asked again, still staring at the text message.

"Yeah, basically," Norman shrugged. "They're saying goodbye now, they're back on the balcony."

"That was really… wow I'm speechless," Dipper said. "And you can just talk to them like you talk to me?"  
>"Yeah, I can walk into the room and see anything that might be in there, hear what they're saying, doing and stuff. Sometimes it's gotten me in a lot of trouble."<p>

"What do you mean?" Dipper asked, sliding onto his side.

"Well, there was one time I was in primary school and I was being scolded by my teacher. There was a male ghost standing in the classroom with her and he was punching and kicking her," Norman said. "It didn't affect her, he had low amounts of energy, but as you can imagine I couldn't stop laughing and I got sent home for the rest of the day.

"That's hilarious!" Dipper laughed.

"There've been worse times, but I don't like thinking about them." Norman said, his voice growing quiet.

"What do you mean?" Dipper said.

"Well… Not all spirits are kind and friendly, sometimes they can be really violent."

"I see…" Dipper replied, "Well doing what I do isn't always fun either."

"Yeah?"

"A few days ago I was nearly killed by a… Something, I've never seen anything like it before. I was walking through the forest behind the house, and mind you I've been there so many times I know it like the back of my hand, I came across an old building I didn't remember. I climbed through a hole in the roof and after being in there for a few minutes I noticed a huge creature crouching on it's back feet in the corner. It was easily twice my height and maybe three times my weight." Dipper said. Norman listened carefully.

"I wasn't really planning on finding much that day, just maybe some evidence of something out there so I hadn't brought anything with me. I ducked behind some furniture and it must have heard me because it stood up and started bashing and thrashing around. I ended up getting out through a trapdoor and breaking through a boarded up window. But the thing began to chase me for about twenty minutes straight and it was unbelievably fast. I'm still really sore from all the running, especially because I'm not very fit." He continued.

"Wow, that's so scary! Did he get you?" Norman asked, concern on his face as he moved closer.

"He came within three meters of me before I made a sharp turn and he gave up. I think he must have watched me run home because during the early hours of the morning I caught a glimpse of something standing outside my house and I got the same awful feeling I got around it. Never in my life have I been so scared." Dipper wiped his face with his hand as he remembered the way that creatures malicious eyes pierced his entire being and sent fear to his heart.

Soon after, a knock on the door brought the boys attention off each other and to the turning door handle. Normans mother Sandra stuck her head through the door, her blonde hair hanging by the sides of her face.

"Norman, would you like to stay the night here? Mrs. Pines was wondering." She said sweetly. She looked at the two boys positioned on the bed, raising an eyebrow at Norman before looking back at Dipper

Norman looked back at Dipper, who raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"It's alright if he stays the night, right Dipper?" Sandra asked.

"Yeah of course," Dipper said.

"Yeah, okay," Norman said shyly, "Are you going to bring back my stuff?"

Sandra nodded before closing the door.

The two boys lived about ten minutes away from each other so it was close enough to walk to the house.

The two boys brushed their teeth and had changed into their pajamas. Dipper moved a spare mattress onto the floor beside his bed and Norman set up his pillow and duvet. They weren't quite ready to go to sleep yet, so they both lay down side by side on Normans bed with a laptop on Dippers legs. They put on a horror movie and a couple of times Norman would gasp or flinch but he was relatively okay. Dipper on the other hand, had his hand covering his mouth with his eyes just above his finger the entire time.

The movie had almost ended when the feeling of an arm over his chest made him jump. He turned and saw that Norman and fallen fast asleep. Not really knowing what to do, Dipper thought that maybe if he slid out and slept on the mattress it wouldn't be so awkward waking up, but the more Norman snuggled up against Dipper, and considering how tired Dipper was, he couldn't resist lying there next to the warmth and comfort of his new friend. He paused the movie and closed his laptop, placing it on the floor beside his bed. When he rolled back, Norman cuddle closer to his side and even though it was a bit awkward, he was okay with it. Norman's head rested in the crook of Dipper's neck and as he lay there awake, he felt his eyes grow heavy. A complete sensation of contentment and adoration came upon him and he smiled to himself as he fell into a perfectly undisturbed sleep.  
>Although to Dipper, he and Norman were alone in that bedroom, two resident old women rolled in on their wheelchairs to take a look at the unusual sight.<p>

"Dipper's been suffering so much, and clearly this boy Norman has as well." Maggie said quietly so as to not wake Norman.

She looked over her shoulder at the waste paper basket beside Dipper's desk and saw the pile of paper and bloodied tissues and band-aids making her heart sadden.

"Hopefully now that they've become friends, they can learn to help heal each other." Said Josephine as they glided through the bedroom wall and let the two boys rest in each other's sleeping embrace.


	4. Chapter 4

A sharp pain to Normans head instantly brought him from his sleep and he quickly unwrapped himself from the tangle mess he and Dipper had created during the night. He stood up and slowly staggered towards the door holding his head in his hand, wincing hard from the pressure. Fumbling for the door handle, he slowly opened Dipper's bedroom door and barely made it to the bathroom. Turning on the cold tap, Norman rinsed his face off trying to soothe his throbbing skull.

He look at himself in the mirror, his face dripping in the reflection. When he thought about it, Norman knew that he really didn't deserve it, the starvation. But whenever Norman tried to eat, he just couldn't keep it down and he would throw it up. All of this was obviously taking its toll on him and he knew he had to try as hard as he could to try and eat something, _anything. _Norman took deep breathes in attempt to calm his stomach, but inevitably he found himself lurching over the toilet. Norman rinsed his mouth out, coughing and spitting up anything caught in his throat and he felt his body growing weak. If there was anything that Norman regretted the most in his life, apart from what happened back home, was the habit he grew of not eating. He liked the taste of food, but whenever he was lucky enough not to throw up it was only because he ate in very small portions.

Norman sank down beside the bathroom door with one knee up, breathing deep and slow to try and ease the pain. A knock on the door followed by a "Norman?" Made him stand up and slowly open the door. Courtney stood there, her hands wrapped around herself inside her purple night gown, concern plastered on her tired face. Norman staggered over to her and Courtney led him over to the kitchen, wrapping her arm around his shoulders as they stumbled. Courtney pulled out a chair and Norman sat down, putting his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. Courtney say next to him, rubbing his back as he quietly cried.

"You did again, didn't you?" Courtney said softly, "You threw up again."

Norman just nodded.

Courtney sighed and leaned back in her chair. There was silence for a while, before Courtney clear her throat.

"Um, do you think you could eat something now? Even something small?" She said with a croaky voice.

"Um, maybe just toast. I don't know." Norman replied, rubbing his head.

"Well I'll make you some toast and a glass of water, but I might need to wake Mabel up to try and find things in here." Courtney said looking at Norman, knowing he wouldn't like that.

"They can't know, not yet at least." He said slowly rubbing his eyes.

Courtney rubbed her neck before pulling out the bread and butter and putting the bread in the toaster. The both of them hoped that nobody would wake up, both Dipper and Mabel slept upstairs so they wouldn't hear them, but their parents slept on the bottom floor right near the kitchen. Norman looked up when a plate with a piece of toast and a glass of water. He looked up at Courtney as she sat back next to him. Norman slowly nibbled at the edge of the toast and Courtney threw a Panadol packet on the table.

"Have two of those, it'll help the headaches."

Norman slowly finished his piece of toast before taking the two tablets, his body growing weaker as they sat in silence. A short while later, Courtney stood up patting Norman on the shoulder urging him to go back to bed and she helped him get back up the stairs. Norman staggered into Dippers room, taking the mattress on the floor and he rolled onto his side, lying still and in pain before eventually falling asleep.

Dipper woke up first the next morning to find Norman lying on top of his duvet on the mattress beside his bed, completely motionless. Dipper lay in silence for about half an hour before deciding to wake him up for breakfast. Dipper gently got down beside Norman and carefully shook his shoulders to try and wake him up. Norman slowly blinked his eyes open before sitting up. Dipper stood back up and walked over to his desk picking up his phone.

"Morning, sorry I just thought I'd wake you because we're going to be eating breakfast soon." Dipper said.

"Yeah thanks." Norman said standing up, he felt a lot better after resting last night.

"Do you want to take a shower now or after breakfast?" Dipper asked.

"Oh I'll have one after."

"Alright, I think we're eating pancakes, you don't mind?" Dipper asked as he opened his bedroom door.

"Nah that's good, love pancakes."

The two boys made their way out the bedroom and to the bathroom. Norman splashed water on his face waking him up and getting any sleep out of his eyes before they made it to the dining area. Norman walked a little closer and felt a slight panic jump through his body when he noticed the crumb covered plate, empty glass and packet of Panadol was still sitting on the table from that night. Dipper walked up to it, slightly confused but he put them away and Norman was glad he didn't ask about it. They could hear the sound of a frying pan and went into the kitchen to see Mrs. Pines pouring the pancake mix onto the pan.

"Good morning boys!" She said in a sing song voice. "How's you sleep?"

"Good, we went to bed a bit later than usual. We watched a couple movies." Dipper said while Norman remained silent.

"Are the girls up?" Mrs. Pines said as she flipped the pancake.

"I think so, I heard some noise as I walked past but they haven't come out yet." Norman said.

"Well sit down at the table boys, I'll bring down a stake of them and you can start eating." Mrs. Pines said.  
>The two boys took their seats at the table and as Mrs. Pines brought them the plate of ten stacked pancakes covered in syrup, Dipper was the first to grab five off the top and begin eating away. Norman took two pancakes and started eating them slowly with a knife and fork. The sound of talking came down from the stairs as Mabel and Courtney walked down in their pink and purple matching night gowns and they walked into the kitchen. The two sat opposite the boys and each took some pancakes off the ever growing stack of pancakes in the middle of the table.<p>

Once Norman and Dipper had finished eating, they both headed back upstairs for showers. Dipper gave Norman a towel and Norman went into the bathroom to take his shower first and Dipper stayed in the lounge room with the girls. Mabel and Courtney were getting along really well and Mabel even seemed a little less snappy when Courtney was around, according to Dipper. They were talking a bit more when Mabel looked up and called her Mom.

"Yes Mabel?" Mrs. Pines said walking back through the lounge room carrying a box of books in her arms.

"Where's Dad gone? Is he back at work again?" Mabel said leaning over the back of the sofa.

"Yeah, he's actually going to be staying there in a hotel all week, he's still trying to find work here though." Mrs. Pines said, half distracted with putting her books in the right order on the bookshelf before leaving the room.

"Where does your dad work?" Courtney asked. Mabel turned to her to explain when Dipper who was sitting on the sofa beside theirs cut her off.

"He works in California. He worked their when we used to live there, but since we've moved here he hasn't been able to find work here and can't quit his current job." Dipper explained. Mabel just nodded.

"Oh okay, well why did you move here?" Courtney asked.

"Oh well Mabel and I were here one summer visiting family, when something really serious happened and our Parents had to move here. Dad still hasn't found work here so he sometimes has to go back, he's only here a couple days of the week." Dipper said.

"Oh, what happen that made your parents move here?" Courtney asked.

Dipper was caught off guard, he didn't have a response and began to panic. He couldn't tell her the truth. It must have been obvious that he was struggling for words, because Courtney began to talk again.

"It's okay, sorry I shouldn't have asked that how rude of me." Courtney apologised.

"No, you're alright. Just family issues I guess." Dipper replied, hoping there were no follow up questions.

Just as he said this, Norman walked into the room. His hair still damp from his shower, but somehow it managed to defy gravity which was ironic considering where they lived. Norman sat down and Dipper got up and began climbing the stairs to the bathroom. Dipper grabbed his towel that was hanging over the door, started the hot water and let the mirror steam before getting in. He took a long shower, if he had waited any longer he would have used up the hot water from both tanks.

They four stayed there all day, mucking around and having fun, planning to stay and have a movie marathon before the new neighbours went back home the next morning. Dipper went upstairs to retrieve his phone and he came back to find that the group had migrated to the other room and he joined the on the floor as Mabel fumbled over the TV remotes and put on a movie. Dipper knew straight away it wasn't a horror movie, she hated them. And he didn't blame her either. The first movie had the four in stitches, Norman and Dipper sharing teary eyed glances as they held their stomachs and covered their mouths to muffle the laughing. The sky began to darken and they turned on the lights to see. Courtney asked to choose the second movie and after about five minutes of talking, Courtney pulled out a DVD from the rack and put it in the DVD player before shutting off the lights leaving them in a cinema like environment.

"What movie is it?" Norman asked.

"Just wait, you'll see." Courtney said.

After the first few minutes of introduction, the title of the movie appeared in white lacy handwriting as soft piano music set the scene.

"Oh my god I love this movie!" Mabel screamed at Courtney. "It's so cute and sad and, have you seen it?"

"Yes oh my god, it's my favourite movie!" Courtney said as she sat back down with Mabel.

"Quick, pass the tissue box over there I'm going to cry." Mabel said, pointing over on the coffee table.

Norman glanced at Dipper and the two boys knew they weren't going to enjoy this movie very much. They stared at the TV screen in absolute boredom as they male character ran after the girl, turning her around and professing his eternal love for her as he placed his hand on her face. Dipper looked down from the screen at his sister sitting just in front of him and the site of two sobbing girls rubbing tissues into their eyes made him wonder if it was he that was under sensitive or them that were too sensitive. Dipper flinched when he felt something touch his shoulder and he turned to see that Norman had fallen asleep and his head happened to rest beside him. Not wanting to wake him and make things awkward for Norman, he left him there hoping he might move later in his sleep and wouldn't have to embarrass himself waking up to him snuggle up to him for a second time in one day. Dipper looked back to the movie, paying mild attention to the movie and as his consciousness began to fade, he felt his body fall softly hitting the carpet. Naturally since Norman had been resting on his shoulder, he fell also and landed right beside him before rolling under Dipper's outstretched arm. Soon both of there were completely passed out, not even the screams of a thousand people would wake them up now and they were out to the world. Mabel happened to turn around to see this undeniably cute sight as the two boys unknowingly snuggled on the floor. Mabel tapped Courtney's arm and pointed over her shoulder and they both gasped and giggled to each other at the funny situation. The movie was over and the girls decided to leave the two alone in there and they went upstairs to Mabel's bedroom.

"I had no idea Dipper was gay, wow!" Mabel said to Courtney.

"Well I know Norman is, he's out to all of us. Maybe Dipper is too, I'll ask Norman privately when we go home, but it could have just been an accident." Courtney said.

"Yeah, I'll ask Dipper tomorrow."

They stayed up in their beds sharing gossip and doing the things a girl does when sleeping over. Meanwhile, Dipper woke up and seemingly as he did, Norman sat up as well. The two boys looked at each other, both expecting the situation to be awkward, but in the end they just laughed because it was pretty funny finding themselves like that for a second time.

"Well we might as well get married if we keep doing this." Dipper laughed.

"I already know where the Honeymoon will be!" Norman joked back.

"Well let's get to bed then huh?" Dipper said as they both stood up and headed up the stairs to Dipper's bedroom and rolling into their separate beds before falling asleep.

The next morning after the four got themselves ready, Norman and Courtney thanked everyone for being such lovely hosts and for welcoming them to town before the headed off back for home. Mabel and Dipper naturally went back to their own routine of not communicating very much and the house was quiet again. Dipper lay in his bed with his laptop on his raised knees, reading another Bigfoot article. For some reason not having Norman there to talk to made Dipper feel… Lonely.

He was brought from his concentration when he heard the sound of distant crying. He immediately left his bedroom just as Mabel had done the same thing.

"Can you hear that too?" Mabel said.

"Yeah, it sounds like… Mom?" Dipper said before the two twins rushed through the hallway and down the steps to find their mother holding her face as she softly cried in her bedroom, the door slightly open.

"Mom, mom what's wrong!?" The twins said almost at the same time. Mrs. Pines nearly jumped at the sudden intrusion, and she quickly wiped her eyes and sat up from her bed.

"You guys are making friends so easily. It's so easy making friends as a kid. But as a parent you can't have time to make friends, especially now we live in this dump of a place." She began to sob again. "I mean I knew people back in Piedmont, but here I'm so alone!"

The twins quickly huddled next to their mom in effort to comfort her.

"And now your fathers gone back to work and with you two up in your bedrooms, the house gets so quiet and I have no one to talk to. All I do is cook and clean, I just want to be able to have fun for once and spend time with friends. But I don't have any here!"

"I know its hard mom, maybe you and Sandra could be friends? She seems nice." Dipper tried to reassure her, but he knew it was useless. He genuinely felt bad for his mother and he blamed all her sadness on himself.

"I know dipper, but Sandra will have the same problem! We'll be two shy mothers trying to become best friends and all I can see happening is the occasional hello when we cross paths and that's it. I don't even think I would be any better if Uncle Stan were sti-"

"Mom, don't talk about him. Please." Dipper said, his mood suddenly dropping to cold and barely responsive. Mrs. Pines wiped her nose.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Mom, I honestly don't know what to do." Mabel said.

"Well I'd be much happier if you two talked with each other more than just when you have to! I'd at least like to live in a house that doesn't feel empty every day." Mrs. Pines said.

"Well, Dipper and I are going to go talk right now,"

Just as the two left, the phone began to ring and Mrs. Pines picked it up. As the twins grew further away from their mother, they heard a faint "Oh, hello Sandra" and knew that she should be fine for now.

"Dipper, I've been meaning to ask you something anyway." Mabel said.

"Yeah, what?" Dipper said.

"After that, it might be a bad time to say it."

"No it's okay, what is it?" Dipper sat down on the sofa and Mabel sat beside him with her legs crossed.

"Well, last night during the movie, you and Norman had fallen asleep next to each other, you were sort of spooning." Mabel said.

"Shit… You saw that?" Dipper said nervously.

"Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is, that if you're gay I'm completely fine with it. If that was just a coincidence then I'll forget about it. But Norman IS gay and I was just wondering."

There was a silence.

"I… I don't think I'm gay, I mean I could be, but nothing has really stood out yet." Dipper said awkwardly playing with his shirt sleeve.

"Okay, well just letting you know that Norman is gay and if he starts showing signs that he likes you, and you know that you aren't interested I don't want you leading him on. You've got to tell him straight away, don't break his heart." Mabel said. Dipper sat in silence.

"He's very soft natured and is likely to not give his trust up easily, but if he gives it to you and you break his heart he'll be crushed. Don't do that to him." Mabel continued.

"I couldn't do that, he's my friend after all. He's a great guy, fun to be around," Dipper said. "Honestly, lately I have been wondering if I was gay. The first night Norman and I actually slept in the same bed after he fell asleep during a movie we watched. I could have easily got out and slept on the mattress, but I stayed there next to him."

"It's okay to be confused, If you ever need to talk about don't be scared to come see me. I'm not always mean." Mabel laughed a little.

"Thanks, I don't think I am though, I'm still attracted to girls at the moment."

Soon after Dipper lay in bed, wide awake. His thoughts racing through every thought he had, every feeling he noticed and every action he made around Norman. Everything to him seemed like normal, friend to friend type of behaviour and he didn't want to dwell on it any longer, so he rolled on his side and plugged his headphones in until he fell asleep.

Dipper woke to the sounds of something hard hitting the window. He quickly got out of bed, parted his curtains just to have a rock hit the glass inches from his face. Looking past the crack it left, he saw a tall figure standing close to the tree line, its eyes glowing in the back porch light, its body as wide as a queen size mattress, its teeth long and sharp. The creature let out a scream that could make a grown man cry before it stormed off into the forest.

The monster was back. 


End file.
